SUNY already has 85,000 students enrolled in 12,000 online courses. But the new program will provide full degrees online and provide help from tutors and teachers through distance learning, SUNY officials said.

“They will see how to subscribe, they will be assured they will be supported with online mentoring,” Zimpher said in an interview Monday with the Associated Press. “We’ll help them with their finances, we’ll make sure they’re taking the courses in the right sequence, and we will give them access to a support base.”

Zimpher plans to address the gap between the 6.9 million adults in New York who graduated high school but didn’t go on to get college degrees.

Zimpher also will announce that $4 million will come from the SUNY Research Foundation to fund research at the colleges in energy, healthcare, neuroscience manufacturing and arts and humanities, according to details obtained by Gannett’s Albany Bureau.

In his State of the State address last Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed full tuition scholarships to the top 10 percent of high-school graduates if they pursue a career in math and science at a SUNY campus and then work in New York for five years.

SUNY plans to offer its own incentives for the program, Zimpher will announce.